The pandemic saw many a regional centre boom as weary city-dwellers struck out to find a new life in leafier (and less locked down) climes. That trend may have slowed, but Ballarat is one city still reaping the benefits of the new blood.

The grandiose architecture from its wealthy gold rush days sets a beautiful stage for new-wave dining. These streets may no longer be paved in gold, but better still, they’re awash with gin, alive with food-focused events and squirrelling away some of the state’s best tacos and most ambitious fine dining. Here’s where to strike it rich in The ’Rat’s new wave of dining gold.

Hot and new essentials

Cobb’s Coffee

Sure, this is exceptional coffee, made with beans from Melbourne-based roaster Rumble. But it’s the rotating sandwich specials that make this an unmissable stop. Reuben sandwiches are stacked with local Istra meats, cheese toasties come with a triple billing of dairy and caramelised onions, and if you’re lucky, you’ll catch the occasional wild card like a spiced lamb sloppy joe.

2 Lydiard Street South, Ballarat Central, cobbscoffee.com.au

Hotel Vera

Even judged against sky-high competition in the luxury hotel game, this renovation of a 19th-century mansion into seven deluxe suites puts Hotel Vera in the top tier. Check-in takes place in the firelit lounge over herbal tea. Every suite is stocked with Salus lotions, cocktails from Melbourne bar Byrdiand Dyson hairdryers, but is otherwise unique, from the pet-friendly Lonarch room, which has its own courtyard, to the more stately rooms upstairs whose ceilings soar high above the freestanding bathtubs. It doesn’t hurt that dinner at the hotel’s fine-diner, Underbar (see below), might start with a Byrdi Old Fashioned from your mini-bar before heading downstairs. For all its old-world charm, tech nerds will love the minutiae: electronic blinds, the TV disguised as artwork and chargers for your Apple watch.

710 Sturt Street, hotelballarat.com.au

Mr Jones

Chef Damien Jones’ Thai-inspired restaurant Catfish was a longtime shining star of the Ballarat food scene before he decided to rebrand and return to his classical roots in 2018. But that detour didn’t stick, and last year Mr Jones reclaimed its hatted status for its modern iteration of Thai classics, built on local produce. It’s a banquet-only festival ($69 on Thursdays, $95 at weekends) of Western Plains Pork suckling pig salad, and Murray cod red curry bracketed by bright snacks. And if that buy-in is more than you’re ready for, the local secret is that every Friday they release an a la carte takeaway menu for eating a la bathrobe. Check their socials.

42-44 Main Road, Bakery Hill, mrjonesdining.com.au.

Pancho

Who’d have thunk Ballarat was home to perhaps Victoria’s most legitimate fried chicken (a crisp exterior-to-juicy-fleshed situation whose shell is more spice than batter) alongside some of its best chicken tacos (the juicy, fatty meat and pickled onions riding on a dual layer of charred tortillas)? The pandemic somewhat muted the reputation of Pancho since it opened in 2019, but don’t expect that to last. This Latin American bar, where folk art fills every space and the caipirinhas and Modello beers fly as thick and fast as the cheesy arepas (Colombia’s fried maize flour pockets) is gaining heat by the minute. Grab those dunkable lamb birria tacos while you can.

36 Armstrong Street North, Ballarat Central, facebook.com/panchoballarat

Peasant

Daniel Tesoriero and chef Doug Kerr brought their sustainability-focused celebration of peasant food to Ballarat last July. The duo used to run Carlton North restaurant Billy Boy Blue, but Tesoriero says moving to central Victoria allowed them to better execute their closed-loop vision: weekends-only set menus dinners that must be pre-booked (to eliminate food waste) held in a borrowed space using as much local produce as possible. That means no seafood, but Waubra lamb ragu with warrigal greens, and Kerr’s trademark gnocchi, currently making friends with goat’s cheese and cauliflower.

13 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat Central, peasant.net.au

Pencilmark Wine Room

With Underbar moving to finer digs, the original space on the corner of Pencilmark Lane has been given a poppy, punk art makeover and turned into a wine-dining bottle-o where the snacking comes easy and the set-menu lunch ($65) is one of the best deals in town. Familiar wine bar hits are executed with a touch that sets a high bar. See tomato and burrata salad turbocharged by a red pepper pesto, and the freshest calamari curls captured in impossibly fine batter with lemony dressed greens. Sundays bring rogue specials such as banh mi. It’s also the perfect place to get a snackshot of the region’s best produce, from Salt Kitchen’s truffled salami served on 1816’s focaccia to gin from local Larrikin distillery and heavy-hitting wines from Pat Sullivan, available by the glass.

3 Doveton Street North, Ballarat, pencilmark.com.au

Ragazzone

Is it the 36-month-aged leg of local prosciutto being sliced at the bar (and draped over Italian gnocco fritto pastry puffs)? The energetic space with its peachy wine-lined walls? Or the menu packed with bright pastas and dishes that truly walk their seasonal talk? Whatever it is, the buzz you might have heard around Ragazzone is genuine. As autumn peaks, there might be pickled pine mushrooms on a potato crispbread and light ricotta gnocchi kissing farewell to summer’s zucchini in minty, preserved lemon fanfare.

319 Mair Street, Ballarat Central, ragazzone.com.au

Underbar

Chef Derek Boath’s micro fine diner has traded its communal table and dinner party energy for minimalist blondwood tables and wafting drapes at the luxurious Hotel Vera. To match its glam new surrounds, the menu is also bigger, bolder and more belt-buckling than ever. Unchanged: absolute precision from the former Per Se chef. See the delicate set custard washed in a genre-defining mushroom consomme, or sticky ebi prawns shrouded in scales fashioned from minuscule pickled carrot slices. But brace yourself. Dinner might start with a duck fat doughnut to dip in rillettes and end with heavenly, hefty croissants and a triple bill of chocolate creams. It’s a big billing with a big bill ($210), but embrace that gold rush-era excess.

710 Sturt Street, Ballarat Central, underbar.com.au

Don’t miss

Ballarat Farmers’ Market, formerly at Brown Hill, has moved permanently to Zoo Drive, on the edge of Lake Wendouree. Held on the second and fourth Saturday of the month, this means you can stock up on pastries, cheeses and coffee and set out on the six-kilometre circuit that runs through the botanical gardens. There on an “off weekend” and want to stock up before a hike up Mount Buninyong? The town’s go-to bakery for slow-fermented sourdoughs and well-dressed danishes is 1816 (18 Armstrong Street North, Ballarat Central), while Salt Kitchen Charcuterie (1B Wiltshire Lane, Delacombe) is a haven of smoked and salted meats, terrines and fresh sausages should your trek take you via a barbecue.

Heritage Harvest Festival has become an annual pilgrimage for food-loving skill-seekers. On May 27-28, Sovereign Hill, Ballarat’s gold rush theme town, will be transformed into a food village celebrating old-world skills, from pickling and fermenting to beekeeping and distillation. The line-up includes a lazy three-course lunch, book signing and ricotta class with Julia Busuttil Nishimura, a dumpling deep-dive with industry legend Tony Tan, MasterChef semi-finalist Tim Bone presenting on preserved meats plus, gin and baking masterclasses, Cat Clarke on bushfoods, and a grazeable market showcasing local producers who make their wares the old-fashioned way. hhw.sovereignhill.com.au

Thirsty? Larrikin gin is the local liquor made by the team at Kilderkin Distillery (14A Hill Street, Mount Pleasant, Ballarat), whose cellar door is open from Thursday to Sunday for gin flights, beers and buying one-off products like their limited-release mushroom gin, made with local fungi farmers the Mushroom Connection. If your drinking tastes veer more global, Comfort of Strangers (307 Mair Street, Ballarat) is the bluestone local for white burgundies, Japanese whiskies and the most substantial list of aperitivi in town. Kicking on after hours? Moon and Mountain (220 Mair Street, Ballarat Central) is your answer to a late-night need for South-East Asian snacks and cocktails.